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An ecumenical, bipartisan team is heading into 10 early-voting states with a documentary about faith and politics that is loaded with provocative interviews in an effort to force viewers to confront biases they’re never realized.

The film, to be announced Wednesday afternoon and released in theaters and DVD on Jan 15, is called “Article VI,” after the section of the Constitution which says that “no religious test” shall be required as a qualification for federal office.

The announcement of the film comes as Mitt Romney prepares to give a speech Thursday in Texas that will address his Mormon faith.

A trailer says the movie “asks voters whether they would have denied America some of the greatest presidents in history because of their religious beliefs.”

The director, Bryan Hall of Living Biography Media, tells Politico that one of his most surprising discoveries was “how many people feel their faith is being attacked.”

“Every minority religion feels attacked,” Hall said. “Then it was shocking to hear people in the mainstream religions – the Protestant religions – pointing out evidence of their religions being attacked,” he said. “I never realized that all these other people feel the same way I do.”

The co-producer is Reed Dickens of Newport Beach, Calif., a former White House spokesman and founder of the Outside Eyes corporate communication firm.

“A lot of people are walking away going, ‘I’m more judgmental than I thought,’ or ‘Boy, I really rank religion as more of a criterion for candidates than I thought I did,” Dickens said.

The film is scheduled to be finished Dec. 18. With the help of Watkins Global Strategies of Salt Lake City, the filmmakers plan to reach conservatives through evangelical leaders and pastors and liberals through grassroots-activist groups.

Traveling in a posse of four to six people, the filmmakers hit about 30 cities and interviewed more than 50 people, from the president of a Hindu temple to former Reagan administration attorney general Edwin Meese.

Among the more provocative moments:

—Hugh Hewitt, the law professor and conservative talk show: “If religion had been a test, we wouldn’t have had Lincoln.”

—Flip Benham, director of the anti-abortion Operation Rescue: “Hinduism is a lie straight from the pit of Hell.”

—Charles Cohen, professor of Abrahamic religions at University of Wisconsin-Madison: “To my mind, the Mormons are the only people that have left the United States because they felt they weren’t being granted their religious freedom.”

—Bill Keller, an Internet evangelist and founder of Live Prayer: “Who could be more perfect than Mitt Romney? He’s a great guy… But the problem is he’s following a false theology straight to Hell.”

—Clyde Wilcox, Georgetown University professor of religion and politics in government at Georgetown University: “The problem is that everyone’s faith looks really weird from the outside.”

Hall, 34, lives in Orem, Utah, and has 5-year-old son and a 2-year-old daughter. He’s Mormon and says he doesn’t try to hide the fact that he likes Romney. But he said Romney and Mormon boosterism was left out of the film in part because his crew included a hard-core liberal.

“I was originally interested because of the questions being posed to Mitt Romney about a year ago,” Hall said. “It took about a month of filming before I realized it was much bigger than me and my church. The entire discussion of Mormon doctrine, or anything that can be construed as what Mormons believe or I’m just defending Mormons, we took it out.”

Hall said only an independent filmmaker could have been quite so raw. “When you get too much corporate involvement or political involvement in making a film like this, a lot of stuff’s going to be edited out,” he said. “We just let them say it.”

Dickens said part of his role was to “help craft a storyline and a message taking into account the political climate and the political map of the primaries.”

“It’s almost as if the media and the voters have gotten to where they’re trying to doctrinally frisk the candidates - -try to catch them off-guard on a doctrinal statement,” Dickens said. “The hope is that voters will think twice: Am I unwittingly applying a religious test? Am I unintentionally holding standards to these candidates that was not meant to be in our country and by the Constitution?”

Readers' Comments (13)

No wonder the "Christian-coaltion-types" didn't back Romney. Romney needs help in order to feel like he is part of an ordinary orthodox religion. Because Mormonism is a cult.......he is gonna need all the help he can get. So guess where it starts? You got it -- Salt Lake City, Utah where Joseph smith declared that city a "holy" city.

I hope the video addresses why Mormons believe that Jesus will return to the United States. Mitt ROmney gets it all wrong and Mormon expert/spokesperson corrects Romney and says that the "New Jerusalem" is in Missouri (U.S.A).

I read and reread the article and I'm still not sure what the film is about, so, here I go to find out! I found the blogsite, if anyone else is interested in getting in on it; http://www.article6blog.com/

Unless you can point out the thing that makes your religion superior somehow, then so is mainstream christianity. Or any religion for than matter. I am really interested in the logic that led you to the conclusion that Mormons somehow belong to a cult, and everyone else who relies on faith doesn't.

Hey, "GOP Latina," did you sleep through American History? Joseph Smith was killed in Illinois. It was Brigham Young who founded Salt Lake City. And Salt Lake City mayor Rocky Anderson is anything but holy. Just ask him. Religious bigotry is usually the result of ignorance. Yours is showing. I suggest you see the film.

"If Mitt doesn't want to accept people based on their religion (fellow Muslims), then that qualifies Americans to judge him the way he judges Muslims." GOP Latina-- I just want you to know that your logic in this statement is flawed. Because when you attack Mitt's religion, you also attack it's other adherents. Many of them may also be judgemental of Muslims, but certainly not all of them (myself included). And since YOUR statements about Mormonism are as equally false and factually inaccurate about Mormonism, shouldn't we also ignore everything you have to say on the subject? Here's something refreshing: I'm Mormon and I can't STAND Mitt Romney.

What I really think is interesting is the militancy and seige mentality of the Religious Right in general. It reminds me alot of internal deliberations of the Stalin era Communist Party-- in order to rally the base, you had to have enemies: first it was Tsarist bourgeoisie sympathizers and kulaks, then Mensheviks, then Trotskyites... anyone who's read Animal Farm knows the tactics. Has anyone seen Jesus Camp? It frightened me that young Evangelicals are being indoctrinated not only by Jesus (this would be fine, of course), but being taught that they will have to fight in the military against Anti-Christs. Onward Christian Soldiers indeed. If we'd had a religious test, not only would we not have had Lincoln, we certainly wouldn't have had Jefferson the Deist, Washington the non-denominational, or maybe even George HW Bush the liberal Episcopalian (remember the 1988 Pat Robertson primary challenge?)

Family Research Council is a 501 C3 and does not endorse candidates. FRC Action is a PAC and can endorse but has not endorsed any candidate. See the link from Tony Perkins of FRC: http://www.frcaction.org/get.c...